Time and Ghibli
by SilverPirate2011
Summary: Seita Yokokawa (from "Grave Of The Fireflies") is given the chance to change his own fate. But at what cost will this be, and what do characters from other Studio Ghibli films have to do with it?
1. Chapter 1

We begin this story in the country of Japan, in the town of Kobe, in a shelter beside a pond. Inside the shelter were two children, a teenaged boy named Seita and a small girl named Setsuko, who was the boy's younger sister.

The year was 1945. A war was taking place that history names "The Second World War".

I do not need to tell you (I hope) that during a war, people suffer.

The girl, suffering from malnutrition was lying on the ground. Next to her was a slice of watermelon her older brother, who was standing over her, had left for her.

"Setsuko, eat the watermelon. I'm going to cook you rice porridge with eggs. OK?" said the boy.

"Seita, thank you," said the girl.

If you've seen the film _Grave of The Fireflies_, then you already know how this ended. But I would not bore you dear reader, with a retelling of the end of that film's events. So instead I pose you the question:

What if someone came to help Seita and Setsuko?

Seita stepped outside the shelter to prepare dinner, only to find a man standing in front of him outside the entrance. He had not been there a moment before, so Seita reasoned had been followed without his knowledge.

"Who are you? This is my home, now get lost!" said Seita, rashly, raising a fist.  
>"That's no way to welcome a guest, young man," said the man, grabbing hold of Seita's hand.<p>

"You're only a guest if you're welcome. You aren't!" Seita struggled with the man's hand as he tried to free it.

"Your name is Seita, isn't it?"

"How would you know that? Are you from the government or something? Are you here to take me away from my sister? She's dying!"

"I know how to stop your sister from dying!"

Seita stopped struggling. "Do you have medicine?" he asked.

"Better. I have the means of preventing your sister from becoming ill in the first place!" The man let go of Seita's arm.

"Allow me to explain myself. I am a time traveller from the 49th Century." The man raised his left arm and showed him what appeared to be a large rectangular watch around his wrist. "This device allows me to travel backward and or forward through time."

Seita scoffed, "So you think you're a time traveller!"

"I shall demonstrate," the man said and touched some buttons on the keypad and then took hold of Seita's arm.

Seita saw that the area around him, except for himself and the man, suddenly warped, as though someone had taken a photograph and managed to stretch it as though it were dough. Then the area unstretched and returned to normal.

"We haven't gone anywhere," said Seita, observing that they were still by the shelter.

"Oh but we have. Look there," said the man and pointed at Seita's stove.  
>Seita looked and saw that steam was coming out of the stove. "But I haven't started cooking yet."<p>

"That's because we've travelled into your future. An hour to be precise. Look inside there." The man was pointing to one of the doorways in Seita's hut. Seita looked and saw a very familiar figure.

"That's me," he said to himself. Seita watched as his body was knelt over Setsuko, who was now lifeless.

"But I gave her the watermelon!" exclaimed Seita.

"That wasn't enough," said the man, who proceeded to press buttons again on the device. Reality warped around. Seita found that they were now in a railway station.  
>"Recognise that body?" said the man, pointing at a dishevelled figure lying against a pillar.<p>

Seita felt sick.

"That's you isn't it," said the man.

Seita managed to force out a "yes". Seeing your own dead body is, after all, a disconcerting experience. The man tapped the buttons on the device again.

This time Seita found itself outside of a house.

"Where are we now?" asked Seita.

"The correct question is when are we," said the man. Now look again.

Seita looked at the shelter and saw himself playing with Setsuko, both of whom now looked much healthier. And in the doorway of the house stood his parents.

"How can this be possible?" Seita asked the man, turning to him.

"You did it," said the man, "this is what will happen if you use the device. You will rescue your father from his ship before he drowns and your mother before she is killed in the bombings." The man pressed the buttons on the device again, causing he and Seita to return to the present.

"I'll take the device," said Seita.

"Good choice," said the man, removing the device from his wrist and handing it to Seita.

Seita placed the device on his wrist. But he could not make head nor tail of the buttons on the device. "Can you tell me how to work this?" he asked the man.

"I will tell you," said the man, "if you do something for me."  
>"Anything," said Seita.<p>

"The device has a list of preset destinations in time programmed into it," said the man, pressing a button, causing a list of destinations to be projected from the device in mid-air as though it were on a small television screen. "You must travel to these places." The man stopped and crouched down to Seita's eye level before speaking again. "Listen to me, Seita. There are some nasty people in the world. There have been and there will be. There were wars before the one you were in and there will be after this. So I want you to remove from time these people who will be responsible for starting the wars," he said as the device began displaying faces of people.

"Remove from time?"

"As in kill. You will be shown who when you arrive at each destination. What's the matter, got cold feet?"

Seita was silent.

"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking if you can bring yourself to kill people," said the man.

Seita nodded.

"It isn't as if you haven't committed crime before. So what have you to be scared about?" said the man.

"But I've never taken a life," said Seita, "When I stole things I never harmed anyone else."

"Surely by stealing crops you deprive people of their food? Isn't that harming them? Your father served in the navy; what do you think happens there? Everyone sits around playing poker? People die in battles, Seita. Your father would have been responsible for killing others, like every other soldier in this conflict. And you are my soldier!" said the man.

Normally, if a man were to walk up to you and say that he could give you what you wanted by killing various people, chances are you would say no.

But for Seita, life was not normal. His parents were dead and now he was having to look after his sister as though he were a parent and failing.

When you are at your wits end, that is when you are the most susceptible to deals with the devil.

"I'll do it," said Seita, "but how should I go about killing people?"

"The device comes with a laser, activated by the red button in the bottom right hand corner of the device that will vaporise whatever you shoot with it. No blood, no mess, no fuss," said the man, "Try it for yourself. That racoon there for instance."  
>Seita looked and saw a racoon sniffing about the shelter. It stopped and looked in the direction of the two men.<p>

"Don't be shy. Just press the button," said the man.

Seita pressed the button.

From the device, a yellow beam of light was shot.

The light hit the racoon.

One second ago, there had been a racoon.

Now there wasn't.

"I just did that?" said Seita.

"Yes, not that for your first kill," said the man, "Don't look so downcast. It was a racoon. It's of no consequence to anyone."

Seita looked at the shelter's entrance.

"I'll take care of your sister until you return," said the man.

"Make sure she eats the watermelon," said Seita.

"I will," said the man, "but there's just two things you need to remember."

"What are they?"

"When you meet these people, they will have yet to have waged war. You will find them in states of innocence. Some of them will be very innocent. You must kill them regardless of the state you find them in. Understand?" said the man.

"Yes," said Seita.

"Second, you must not attract attention. No witnesses whatsoever! If you do, you're going to have to kill the witnesses as well," said the man, "Got that?"

"Yes sir," said Seita. He then pressed the button to send him to his first destination.

The man watched as Seita dissolved into a figure of energy and vanished.


	2. Chapter 2

Seita saw reality around him distort, as it had before.

It took a few minutes for him to realise that everything had stopped.

He was now in a large room, surrounded by different sorts of plants being grown in large grey flowerbeds fed by irrigation channels. But the plants did not resemble anything that Seita had seen, for there was something alien about them in their shapes and colours.

Seita wondered what his mother would have thought if she saw the flowers. And it was then that he remembered that he had a mission. He looked at the device and saw the identity of the person he was meant to do away with.

It was a girl, around the age of a young adult.

Seita looked around the room, but saw that there was no one present. What he did see was a door at the other end of the room.

And the door was opening.

Thinking fast, Seita hid behind one of the flowerbeds. He peeked his head above the flowerbed, hoping that the flowers would hopefully stop him from being seen.

A girl with short brown hair dressed in blue jacket and white leggings entered the room.

Seita looked at the wrist device and the image that was on it. This was the girl he was meant to shoot. He stood up and raised his arm.

Seita hesitated. Could he really bring himself to shoot someone? His previous victim had been a racoon, nothing more than an animal. But this time, he was now to kill a living, breathing, intelligent human being.

The girl took a cutting from one of the flowers. Her back was to Seita and even if she had turned around he would still have been hidden behind the flowers.

Seita looked at her as best as he could through the flowers at the girl. There was nothing about the girl's demeanor that suggested anything evil about her.

But then he remembered what the man had said to him.

That he would find these people in states of innocence.

She may not have started a war yet, but she would start one in the future.

Seita stepped out from behind the flowers. He now had a clear view of the girl.

The girl turned to take another cutting, and it was then that she saw Seita.

"Who are you?" she said to him.

"I'm sorry," said Seita, steeling himself. He pressed the button. And the girl was vaporised.

"I'm so sorry," said Seita as he pressed the button to travel to the next time.

* * *

><p>Seita found himself in bright sunlight.<p>

Shielding his eyes from the sunlight, Seita looked around trying to work out where he was.

He found that he was at the top of a hill. And he also found that there was a house nearby.

Seita walked up to it, but saw a window.

He lay down on the ground and worried to himself that someone had seen him.

After a few minutes of laying on the ground, no one walked up to him.

Remembering his mission, Seita looked up from the ground and looked at the device, which was now showing a young girl of around Seita's age.

The question was, where to find her?

Seita wondered if the girl was inside the house.

"If she's inside the house I should've just walked up to it," he thought to himself.

But then he had another thought. Just because there was a house, it did not mean that the girl he was inside it. And he remembered the other thing the man had told him.

That there were to be no witnesses, otherwise he would have to kill more people.

"Excuse me," Seita heard a voice say.

Seita's heart sank. Someone had seen him. He looked in front of him, but saw no one.

"Is something wrong?" the voice asked again. Seita realised that whoever was talking to him was behind him.

Seeing as he had no choice, Seita slowly picked himself up. He turned around and saw who had been speaking to him.

Standing in front of Seita was a girl of his age with black hair tied into long plaits dressed in a yellow shirt and pink pantaloons.

Seita wondered, was this girl a pirate? She looked like one, after all.

"Can you speak?" said the girl.

Seita looked at the device again, and the penny dropped. The girl he was meant to kill had walked up behind him and was now in front of her!

Seita raised his arm.

"What are you…" the girl began.

Seita fired the device and the girl vanished.

"Two down," Seita said to himself and travelled to the next time.

* * *

><p>This time, Seita found himself in a glade, surrounding by tree trunks and flora.<p>

In front of him, was a large, grey, furry animal, resembling a cross between an owl (only without wings) and a rabbit. It appeared to be asleep.

Seita glanced at the device. The target he was meant to attack was in front of him!

"This can't be right," he thought as he stared at the sleeping beast, "it's too easy."

Just then, Seita heard what sounded like screaming. The next thing he knew, two young girls had landed on top of the creature's stomach.

The creature opened its eyes and roared. The girls roared back at him.

Seita regretted his hesitation and began quickly looking for a place to hide. He took a step backward and stepped on something soft. Seita quickly stepped forward and turned around to see two creatures similar to the one he had just seen, albeit much smaller in size, scurrying away from him.

"Hey!" Seita heard a voice behind him.

Seita turned around. The two girls that had landed on the creature had now climbed off it.

One of the girls had short black hair and looked to be around 12 years old. The other had short brown hair tied in pigtails and looked to be around Setsuko's age. And the creature had now stood up. It snorted at him.

"Who are you?" the taller girl asked him.

"What are you doing in Totoro's nest?" the small girl asked.

Seita froze on the spot.

The man had told him not to avoid having witnesses. And now he would have to deal with the consequences.

The small girl walked up to him. "What's that you're wearing on your arm?" she asked, looking at the device with curiosity. Seita snatched his arm away before she could touch it.

"I have no choice," he thought to himself and fired the laser. The taller girl ducked. The laser hit Totoro and he vanished.

The taller girl turned around, stunned at the now vast, empty gap of air that Totoro's disappearance had left.

"What did you do to Totoro?" shouted the small girl and tried to grab hold of him. Seita pushed her and backed into a tree trunk. He then saw that he had pushed her onto the ground and the girl was now in tears.

The taller girl went to console the small girl. "You hurt my sister!" shouted the taller girl, crouching down by the now sobbing girl.

Seita wondered how he was supposed to get out of this one. The man had told him to make sure that no one saw him and now two girls had seen him.

"I'm sorry," whispered Seita. He raised his arm and shot the small girl.

"Mei!" shouted the taller girl in shock.

"She was your sister?" asked Seita, softly.

The girl leapt up and started charging toward Seita.

Seita shot the girl and like the creature and the small girl, she vanished.

"Then I have relieved her of the pain," he said to himself and pressed the button.

There was no time for mourning.

* * *

><p>This time, Seita found himself in a small room.<p>

To his left, a window was opened, and light was streaming through it. Below the window was a table with a small red radio standing on it. Next to the table was a bed.

Seita swore that he could smell the seaside and walked up to the window. It was then that he saw the sea.

He had said to Setsuko that when she was better he would take her to the sea again. And with the device, he could even take her to this one if he wanted.

But for now, he had a mission to fulfil.

In the centre of the room was a table with a plate. And Seita saw an object of great importance to him on the plate.

A half-eaten pancake.

You may scoff at the idea of a half-eaten pancake being of great importance to anyone, but bear in mind that Seita had just spent weeks living in the middle of nowhere with little to eat. The half-eaten pancake might as well have been a banquet.

Seita picked up the pancake and took a bite. It was cold and tasteless, but after living on beans for the previous weeks, it may as well have been caviar.

Seita took another bite. He could hear a cat mewling, but it was irrelevant to him.  
>The mewling came again, this time louder.<p>

Taking another bite out of the pancake, Seita turned and saw that it had come from a cat sitting on the windowsill.

Seita took another bite out of the pancake. After all, since when did cats eat pancakes?

Since now.

Mewling angrily, the cat leapt off the windowsill and leapt at Seita, hitting his chest. The force of impact knocked Seita to the ground, forcing him to drop the pancake. He grabbed hold of the cat's body and threw it off, screaming. Seita picked himself up and fired the device at the cat which, like Seita's previous victims, vanished.

"Jiji?" Seita heard a girl's voice call from outside of the bedroom. It was then that he came to the realisation that he had forgotten about his mission. Raising his right arm and image of a young girl in her early teens appeared from the device.

Seita could then hear footsteps as though someone were running up the stairs. "Jiji, I could hear noise!" the voice came again, though muffled by the sound of footsteps. Seita guessed that Jiji was the name of the cat and that the girl was his owner. "Jiji?" the voice called again as the door opened.

A girl of around 12 wearing a black (or a very dark purple) dress with short black hair tied with a red bow entered the room, gasping on seeing Seita, who realised that the girl who had entered the room was the one he was meant to kill.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" the girl shouted at him.

This time there would be no hesitation. Seita fired the device and the girl was vaporised.

Seita breathed a sigh of relief and picked up the pancake from the floor, not caring about the fact it had been dropped onto a surface that could have been full of germs, and scoffed it whole.

Having finished gorging himself, Seita travelled to the next location.

* * *

><p>He was outdoors again. In front of him was a wooden red bridge leading across a stream and across from that a large red tower.<p>

"It's a bath house," he said and looked at the device, which displayed an image of a boy in his early teens.

Seita looked at the building and surveyed its size.

"How am I supposed to find someone in a building that large?" thought Seita. He looked at the device, wondering if he could travel to the next time and simply skip one of the victims.

He pressed the button.

Nothing happened.

"Guess I'm going to have to find him," thought Seita and ventured toward the building, stepping across the bridge. As he finished crossing over, a door opened. Seita looked around him quickly and dived behind a nearby bush.

"So you are serious about this," said the voice an old woman.

"Yes," said another voice, this time of a young boy.

Seita peered above the bush. He gasped, and placed his hand over his mouth to stop himself from gasping in case he attracted attention. He could see two people. One was an old woman with white hair and a dark blue dress. But Seita had not seen a woman, or any person like her, before. The woman's head was enormous and her body was wide. The other was a young boy with short black hair, wearing a white shirt with blue pantaloons.

"I must have travelled back a century or so," Seita thought to himself and looked at the device. The teenager was his target.

"Well, if I were able to convince you, we wouldn't be at the door now, would we?" said the woman, who then began sniffing.

"Feeling sentimental?" said the boy.

"I smell human," said the old woman, "It's probably just my imagination. You making me feel sentimental over Sen."

"_Goodbye_, Yubaba," said the boy.

The old woman harrumphed, stepped back into the building and slammed the door shut. With her gone, Seita stood up from behind the bush. Suddenly, the boy looked in Seita's direction.

"I knew you were there the whole time," said Haku, "You don't have to hide from me."

Seita raised his arm. "You should have hidden from me," he said and shot the boy, who vanished.

When Seita arrived at the next location he surveyed his surroundings.

* * *

><p>"It's sunset," he said as he saw the red-orange sky.<p>

Seita found that he was standing in a ring road that encircled a statue of a crow perched on a plinth. The ring road was in turn encircled by small houses that only came up to half his height.

"Have I become a giant?" Seita thought, "Or have I stepped into a model village?"

The device displayed two images. One was a bird, the other was a cat.

Seita looked below him and saw a statue that matched the image of the device displayed.

"This bird must be really important," thought Seita, "otherwise why would it have a statue made of it?"

Seita looked around, but he could not see any other birds.

"Maybe he's in his nest," thought Seita, but he could not see any nests.

"Maybe I could try looking for the cat, first," Seita thought. But the question was, where to find it? He had not seen any cats when he had been looking around the ring road.

But he had not looked inside any of the buildings.

Seita crouched down and began looking inside the windows of the buildings. Everything he could see through the windows looked like that which he could find in an average household, albeit scaled down.

"If this is a model village, someone put a lot of detail into it," thought Seita.

And then, in the window of what looked like a shop, was a statue of a cat.

Seita wondered what sort of time period he had landed in. "What kind of society builds statues to pets?" he thought. He knew that in Ancient Egypt people worshipped their pets, but the buildings looked far too futuristic to be Ancient Egypt.

He remembered that had been told that the people he was killing would be responsible for starting wars. Had he arrived in a time when animals had evolved to a level of on par of humans?

Suddenly, a bright light shone from a shop window. Seita covered his eyes.

The light ceased. Seita uncovered his eyes and was shocked to see that the statue had vanished.

Seita thought, did the statue have an ability to make itself disappear and reappear at will or something?

Then the door to the building opened.

From the building, a cat stepped out.

A cat walking on its hind legs, as well as wearing a waistcoat, trousers and top hat. And it was then that Seita realised that the cat had been the statue he had been looking at a few minutes earlier!

The cat looked upward at Seita. And then it spoke. "Good evening," it said.

Seita wondered how something that was immobile a few seconds earlier was now moving. Then he remembered that he was supposed to do away with the cat, so he raised his arm and fired the device at the cat. The cat gasped, but before he could react, the beam hit him and he vanished.

"Hey you!" a voice shouted at Seita.

Seita turned in the direction of the voice but did not see anyone else.

"Hey buddy, I'm talking to you!"came the voice again. Seita then saw the statue of the bird had now become a living animal.

"What did you do to the Baron?" the bird said.

Seita fired the device at the bird. The bird, seeing this, tried to escape, but the beam was too fast for it.

"I must be in the future. That's the only thing that could explain statues coming to life," Seita thought to himself as he left for the next time period.

* * *

><p>Seita found himself to be indoors again.<p>

The room was built of stone. To his left was a fireplace with a fire burning away. To his right was a staircase. In the middle of the room was a table.

"Hey, where did you come from?" Seita heard a voice. He looked around, but Seita could not see anyone.

"Are you a mouse?" he said, wondering if an animal was talking to him again.

"Over here. In the fireplace," said the voice, again. Seita turned to look at the fireplace. But all he could see was the fire.

"I can't see you," said Seita.

"You can't see a fire! Gee, I'm so bright and I still go unnoticed!" said the voice. It was only at this point that Seita saw the fire had sprouted eyes and a mouth and was now talking to him. Seita gasped and took a step backward, and then remembered his mission and raised his arm to see the images of those he was meant to kill.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the furniture started talking to me," thought Seita, and wondered if he would have to kill those as well. This of course took the view that furniture could be alive in the first place.

"Who are you? I didn't let you in through any of the doors," said the talking fire, "What are you, some kind of magician?"

Seita ignored what the fire was saying and raised his arm to look at the device. It displayed the fire and a blonde haired man.

"What's going on?" a voice said. Seita looked up from the device and saw a man with blonde hair and wearing a pink and blue check cloak coming down the staircase. The man's face came into view and Seita saw that he matched the description of the man he was meant to kill. So he fired the device.

"Hey! What did you do to Master Howl?" shrieked the fire, seeing the man vanish.

Seita pointed the device at the fire. "Oh no, you don't want to do that to me kid!" said the fire, but Seita took no notice and shot the fire. The kitchen began to crumble.

Seita pressed the button to leave.

He left before the entire castle collapsed on top of him.

* * *

><p>Seita found himself outdoors in broad daylight again. He found himself at the bottom of a cliff by the sea. There was very little beach to stand on and the ground was mostly rock. In front of Seita was the sea, where he could see numerous ships sailing.<p>

The ships reminded Seita of his father and the news that he had drowned.

"Once I'm finished, I'm going to rescue you, dad," Seita thought to himself. He looked at the images displayed on the device. It was of a girl around Setsuko's age with ginger hair.

Seita was surprised at the image the device brought up. How could a young girl cause so much pain in the future?

"Sosuke! Ponyo! When you find the bucket come back up here immediately!" Seita heard a woman call. He looked around, but it was hard for him to tell where the sound had come from.

"OK, mom!" called the voice of a boy.

"OK!" called the voice of a girl.

Seita looked upward and saw a girl wearing a red dress and a boy wearing a yellow shirt and blue shorts walking down a path to the beach. He hid behind a wall of rock and carefully peeked his head around the corner.

"Where did you leave it, Ponyo?" the boy asked.

"It was over here," the girl said.

Seita saw that the children were now walking over to where he was hiding. He started to edge his way along the cliff face, only to kick his foot against something.

A green bucket.

"Did you hear that, Sosuke?" said the girl.

"Uh-huh," said the boy.

Seita saw a clump of rocks and kicked the bucket toward that.

"There it is," said the girl and ran to pick it up, quickly followed by the boy. They were now directly in Seita's line of sight, and it was then that Seita realised that he had kicked the bucket into a poor location. Grabbing the girl's arm, the boy turned and saw Seita trying to hide amongst the rock.

"Who are you?" the boy shouted.

Seita fired the device and the girl vanished. The boy gasped. But before he could do anymore he too was shot at as well.

"Did I have the right to shoot tyrants when they're children?" Seita thought to himself and remembered what the man said to him about finding his victims in states of innocence.

"Yes, I've done what was necessary," Seita thought to himself as he pressed the button to travel to the next time.

* * *

><p>He was surprised to find himself back at his shelter.<p>

"You took long enough," said the man.

"I've done what you've asked," said Seita, "now show me how to use the device for myself."

"All you have to do, is to press these buttons," said the man, grabbing Seita's arm and pressing a number of buttons in quick succession. The device crackled and Seita suddenly found himself covered in electricity.

And then he vanished.

The device fell to the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

In the middle of a forest, a girl dressed in a blue jacket and white leggings materialised from thin air. She took a look at her new location, and then quickly began searching her pockets for an air mask.

You may be wondering to yourself why the girl was scrambling around for such an object.

You must understand this: we live in a world where we take our (relatively) clean air for granted. Imagine, if you would, a world where the air had become so polluted, you were forced to where a gas mask wherever you went.

The girl's name was Nausicaa. She lived in a world where most of the Earth was covered in a Toxic Jungle. So called because it produced spores that would kill a human within minutes.

Nausicaa was unable to find her air mask. After all, she had not been planning on travelling outside of the Valley of The Wind, her home, one of the few pockets of human civilisation left, when she had been kidnapped.

Then she realised something.

If she were in a jungle filled with spores, then she would have already begun feeling their negative effects. As it was, she had not started coughing and there did not seem to be anything wrong with her.

"Where is this?" she wondered as she walked up to one of the trees, having decided that her life was not in immediate danger. Its trunk was thicker than those in the Valley, and its bark was a very dark brown.

Nausicaa thought to herself, "Could this be the work of the Toxic Jungle's purification?" For that was the irony of the Toxic Jungle – that while it was harmful to humans, it was actually renewing the flora of the Earth and in the long term would make it a habitable planet again.

Nausicaa looked around her again.

People advise you that if you are lost in a forest, that you should stay put where you are and wait for others to find you. This advice, however, is only useful if say, you were with a group and were separated, or have concerned loved ones who will send the emergency services to find you (and bear in mind that in Nausicaa's time, there were no such things as emergency services).

Nausicaa noticed that the land was gradually sloping downward and began walking down the slope. "Hopefully this will lead to a river. If there's a river, that should eventually lead to a settlement," she thought.

It was not very long afterward that she came across a small brown creature with a snout and tail.

She could not tell what species the creature was, but it did not matter. She loved all animals regardless.

You might scoff at the idea of Nausicaa being unable to recognise an animal, but bear in mind this: she was of a world more advanced, in time that is, than our own. Evolution had thus produced creatures that would be unrecognisable to us in our present day and age, as a creature of our age was unrecognisable to her.

The creature stopped in his tracks. What was this human going to do to him?

Nausicaa crouched down and stretched one of her arms forward with her palm open. "Hello," she said to the animal.

The creature looked at Nausicaa. It approached her cautiously and crawled up to her palm.

"See, there's nothing to be afraid of," she said to the creature, it having become convinced that the girl was not going to do anything nasty to her. It climbed onto the girl's arm and sat as best as it could on Nausicaa's shoulders.

* * *

><p>In the middle of a field, a girl with her hair tied in pigtails materialised from white light.<p>

Looking around, the girl found that her surroundings had changed completely.

The girl's name was Sheeta, who lived with her grandmother on a farm.

Just a moment ago, the girl had been outside her grandmother's house. Now it had vanished. And while she was still outdoors, she was now standing in a grassy field filled with daisies. Around her were trees filled with cherry blossoms.

"It's beautiful," she thought, "but I don't belong here". She looked around and saw to her right a set of stone steps leading toward a Chinese pagoda, raised on a pillar of rock.

"Maybe I could get some idea of where I am," she thought and climbed the stairs leading up to the pagoda.

When the girl reached the pagoda, she was met with a view.

Below her, was a large forest filled with trees with green leaves. Beyond that was a town with numerous buildings and streets. Running through both the forest and the town was a river and beyond the town was a large beach with an ocean that stretched out as far as her eye could see.

Now the only question was, how to get from where she was up here, all the way to the town below.

Deciding that there was nothing she could do but take a long hike, she turned and was about to climb down the stairs when she saw in the middle of the field what looked like a giant rabbit.

* * *

><p>Totoro, for that was the name of the giant rabbit, was in a state of shock.<p>

Only a second ago, he had been in his nest underneath a large tree when his two human friends Satsuki and Mei had landed on top of him.

This was not unusual. The previous summer, the girls had encountered Totoro and since then enjoyed paying him visits every now and again. The only problem was that the girls had a habit of landing on top of him when he was sleeping.

What was unusual was that someone else had been inside his lair. Perhaps this boy had spotted one of Totoro's housemates and then followed him down. This was, after all, the same method by which Mei had discovered him the previous summer.

Down the entrance that did not lead to people falling on top of his stomach that is!

What was unusual was that the boy had fired a beam of light at him, and now he here he was in a completely different location altogether.

Totoro looked at the area around him. Grass beneath his feet? That was a good sign. Trees with cherry blossoms in bloom? Rather odd, considering it was supposed to be summer, although they were very pretty to look at. All the field needed were a few more trees.

His train of thought was interrupted when he saw a flash of light and saw a small girl emerge from it. Totoro recognised her; it was Mei.

"TOTORO!" Mei exclaimed and hugged the creature. Totoro hugged her back, growling softly. Then Totoro saw another flash of light and saw another girl materialise. This time it was Satsuki.

"MEI!" Satsuki exclaimed and rushed toward Totoro and her sister. Totoro let go of Mei, who turned around and hugged Satsuki, who also embraced her sister. Totoro smiled at this.

Sheeta watched from the pagoda. The giant rabbit, while rather scary looking, was not behaving in an intimidating manner and in fact seemed harmless. She decided it was safe to approach the creature and began descending the stairs from the pagoda.

Satsuki took out her handkerchief from her pocket and wiped away Mei's tears.

"Totoro, do you know that boy?" said Satsuki. The giant grunted and shook his head.

"Where are we?" said Mei as Satsuki finished wiping her face.

"I don't know. I don't recognise this garden," said Satsuki, who then looked up at Totoro. "Do you?" she asked the giant. Totoro shook his head again, grunting.

"It's beautiful!" said Mei.

"It is, but we need to find out where we are and get back home. Otherwise mom and dad will get worried," said Satsuki.

Totoro grunted again. The girls looked at Totoro first and then saw that appeared to be looking at something in the distance. The girls looked in the direction Totoro was looking and saw Sheeta was walking off the last step.

Mei gasped.

"So we're not alone," said Satsuki.

"Hello," Sheeta said to the girls.

"Hello," said Satsuki, "Are you the gardener?"

"No. Actually, I'm lost," replied Sheeta.

"Like us," said Mei.

"Yes," said Sheeta, "Who are you?"

"I'm Satsuki," said Satsuki, "This is my sister Mei, and this is Totoro."

Sheeta looked up at the giant, who was now smiling down at her.

"Don't worry. He's harmless," said Satsuki.

"Who are you?" Mei said.

"My name is Sheeta," Sheeta replied.

"Did the nasty man get you too?" said Mei.

"Who?" said Sheeta.

"Before we were brought here, we encountered a man," said Satsuki, "He had this device like a watch that fired a beam of light. At first he fired it at Totoro and we thought he had killed him."

"Then he got me!" Mei shouted.

"And me. The next thing I knew we were all here," said Satsuki.

"My experience was similar to yours," said Sheeta, "I too encountered a man who sent me here using a device around his wrist."

"What did he look like?" said Satsuki.

"He looked a bit older than me. His hair was completely shaven. He had a white vest and he looked as though he hadn't had a change of clothes in weeks," said Sheeta.

"But that's what the man who took us looked like!" said Mei, "Satsuki, maybe it was the same man and this garden is his home."

"If this is his home, then we should leave before he comes to look for us," said Sheeta.

"But where can we go?" said Satsuki.

"Follow me," said Sheeta, who then turned and started running up the stairs. It was when she heard the sound of large footsteps that she realised there might be a problem. She stopped.

"I'm afraid your friend is going to have to wait at the bottom of the stairs," she said.

"Why?" Mei asked.

"I don't think there'll be enough room for him under the pagoda," answered Sheeta.

Totoro and the two girls looked upward and saw the pagoda. The giant grunted. He took out from behind his back a spinning top and leapt on top of it.

Satsuki and Mei knew exactly what was going to happen and leapt onto Totoro grabbing onto his fur.

"What are you doing?" Sheeta called to the girls.

"Just grab on!" Satsuki shouted to Mei as Totoro began rising into the air. Sheeta jumped off the ground and grabbed hold of Totoro's fur as he ascended. The air rushed over her body as they ascended. Then all of a sudden they landed on something.

Sheeta turned her head and saw the pagoda below her, as well as the town below. "Surely this can't take our weight! And he doesn't have any wings!" she exclaimed, "How is this possible?"

"IT'S MAGIC!" Satsuki exclaimed.

"Where are all of the rice fields?" said Mei, who was looking at the city below.

Satsuki looked "Mei, I don't know how, but that is definitely not Matsugo," she said.

"Or Gondoa," said Sheeta.

* * *

><p>In a basket in a room, a black cat materialised from thin air. The cat hurriedly began examining himself.<p>

"Legs, legs, I still have legs," said the cat looking over his body. "Tail, tail, I still have my tail. Wait a sec, I'm all here."

The cat found that he was on top of a pillow which was in turn inside a basket. He settled down, then suddenly stood on his legs.

"Pull yourself together, Jiji!" said the cat, "It's a soft basket, sure. It's the softest basket ever, but there's something more important to worry about. Namely, where am I?"

The cat looked around him. He found that the basket was at the foot of a bed. Stepping out of the basket, he found that he was inside a room with white walls. To the left of the bed was a full-length mirror. To the left of that was a wardrobe with a mop on its left side leaning against the wardrobe. Opposite to the end of the bed was a wall.

There was a flash of light. The cat took a step backward and was surprised to see his mistress emerge from it.

"Kiki!" the cat exclaimed.

"Jiji!" the girl said, "What happened? I could hear you shouting from the bakery!"

"I came over from Lily's to finish breakfast. That's when I see this boy scoffing down my pancake! I told him to stop but he wouldn't. So I leapt on him, he throws me off. Next thing I know there's this white light and then I'm here! What about you?"

"I entered the room. I didn't see you but I did see a boy. He had this device around this wrist where he fired a white light at me and then I was here."

"That's the jerk that sent me here! He really must have wanted that pancake."

If the idea of a cat speaking to a human seems like something to scoff at, then know this. The cat's mistress, Kiki, was a witch. The cat, named Jiji, was her familiar. Witches, you see, have a mysterious ability that allows them to communicate with cats. The girl ran a delivery service where she would deliver various objects by airmail – that is, flying on her broomstick (well, deckbrush). When she wasn't a delivery girl, she worked in a bakery and often had pancakes for dinner (it was all she could afford, after all). This was to the joy of her familiar who liked pancakes, but not for Kiki. For you see, eating too many pancakes will make you fat.

"Jiji, do you know that boy?" said Kiki.

"Nope. Never seen him before," said Jiji.

"I think we've just had an encounter with a magician."

"A magician? I thought those freaks became extinct centuries ago!" Jiji stretched in the basket. "This bed feels really good!"

"I know this place isn't so bad Jiji, but we can't stay here. We need to get back to the bakery." Kiki began waking to the door, Jiji following her.

Kiki and Jiji found themselves on a balcony with a set of stairs that led to the ground, much like the upstairs room they lived in behind the bakery. To their left, right and opposite of them were two level buildings with balconies.

"Kiki, I don't think I recognise this part of town," said Jiji, "Do you?"

"I don't," said Kiki.

* * *

><p>Nausicaa continued her trek through the forest with the creature now resting around her neck, when she someone shout "Where am I?"<p>

She stopped. And then saw something in the distance.

A boy wearing a white shirt and pantaloons.

The creature, seeing that Nausicaa had stopped, spotted a tree and reached for the leaf.

"Perhaps he's from a nearby village," Nausicaa thought and went to approach him, unaware of what the animal was doing.

The creature lost his footing but maintained his grip on the branch.

There was a snap.


	4. Chapter 4

By a river in a forest, a young boy with black shoulder length hair wearing a white shirt and blue pantaloons materialised from white light.

"Where am I?" the boy shouted at the sky.

There was no answer.

He looked around him taking in his surroundings. Seeing the river in front of him, the boy dipped his hand into the river. He took his hand out of the water and stared at his hand. "Something's wrong," he thought, "This river looks real, feels real, yet…" then all of a sudden, he heard the snap of a twig.

Nausicaa turned and saw that the creature had now fallen off her shoulders and was now lying on the ground. Next to him, was a twig with a leaf attached to it. "Whatever was it doing?" she thought.

"Who's there?" she heard a voice shout. She looked upward and saw that the boy she had seen was now walking toward her.

She said to him, "I didn't mean to disturb you."

"You didn't," said the boy, "Do you need help?"

"Yes." The girl turned back to look at the creature. "Can you help it?"

The boy crouched down and looked at the animal. "It isn't dead; just stunned. I can revive it now if you wish."

"How?" said the girl crouching down.

The boy hovered his hand over the creature and whispered some words. Suddenly, it opened its eyes and began picking itself up.

"But how could you do that?" said the girl.

"I was a witch's apprentice," said the boy, standing back up.

The girl stood up as well. "Witch's apprentice? I'd heard of witches in stories, but I never knew they were real," said the girl, "Who are you?"

"My name is Haku," said the boy.

"My name is Nausicaa," said the girl.

Haku turned to look at the small animal, which had now detached the leaf from the branch and was fidgeting with it in its paws.

"Friend of yours?" the boy asked.

"I found him when I arrived in the forest," said Nausicaa, "and he decided to come with me."

"Arrived?" Haku said surprised.

"I was," she hesitated, trying to find the right word, "sent here. By a boy. He had a device attached to his wrist. He fired a white light from it and then I was in this forest."

"A boy? Wearing shabby clothing?" said Haku.

"Yes," Nausicaa answered, "do you know him?"

"He sent me to this forest as well," said Haku.

"So you're lost too," Nausicaa said.

Haku nodded.

"Come with me. If we follow the river, we'll find a way out, eventually," said Nausicaa.

Haku looked at the river. He could not shake the feeling that there had been something not right about it. In fact, there was something wrong with the entire forest.

He needed to get out of it. Fast.

Indeed, he knew of a way to get out of the forest, quickly, but could he entrust Nausicaa with his secret?

A human girl he had once known had learnt of it. That girl had been lost and she had helped him. Now he was lost and so was this girl he had found.

Haku turned back to look at Nausicaa. "I know a quicker way out," he said.

"But you said you were brought here like me."

"Do you trust me?"

Nausicaa saw what looked like glass shatter from the boy's body.

A minute ago, a boy had been standing in front of her.

Now there was a large and very long white animal.

"A dragon!" Nausicaa exclaimed. She stared at it, before the dragon lowered the middle portion of his body. "You want me to climb onto you?"

The dragon grunted, and Nausicaa climbed onto the dragon and grabbed hold of its horns. Seeing this, the creature that had been following Nausicaa placed the leaf it had been fidgeting with on top of his head, climbed on top the girl's back in the nick of time before the dragon suddenly launched into flight.

Very soon they were above the trees. The wind rushed around Nausicaa and she was reminded of her flights on her glider. The creature on her back held on tightly, not being used to flying.

The leaf it had picked up blew off its head.

* * *

><p>In a large room filled with shelves of hats, a cat materialised from white light.<p>

This cat, however, was not the sort that walks on four legs, but rather on its hind legs, and dressed in a top hat and tails.

"Curious," the cat said.

Seeing a pair of wooden doors with windows in front of him, Baron walked toward them and pulled them open.

Stepping out of the building he found that he was in a street lined with shops with windows of differing sizes and shapes.

"Baron!" the cat heard a voice call from above him.

"Toto?" the cat replied in surprise.

"Up here," the voice replied.

The cat looked up. Perched above the porch of the door was a small black raven. The bird leapt off from the porch and landed on the cat's shoulder.

If you are familiar with the adventures of Baron von Gikkingen and his friend Toto, then you will now be thinking that something is amiss. In fact, both Baron and Toto had realised this as well.

"Say Baron, how is it that you're the right size for everything, but I've shrunk?" said Toto.

"That is a very good question, Toto," said Baron, "Another question we should ask is 'where are we'?"

"I would've thought we were among the humans," said Toto, "and then I saw you."

"Yes, this is rather interesting. Do you recall my visit to the Land of Cats, Toto?"

"Yes, especially the part when I had to carry Fatso!" Muta, or Fatso as the bird called him, was a large white cat who was an acquaintance of the Baron.

"As you may recall, Miss Haru shrank to the size of a cat before starting to become a cat herself," said Baron. Haru was a girl who had come to Baron for help having got herself into bother with the Kingdom of Cats.

"Are you suggesting I'm going to sprout whiskers soon?" said Toto.

"I doubt it. Observe the architecture, Toto. The kingdom was mainly rural when I visited. This is not."

"So you're saying this isn't The Land of Cats. So where are we?"

Baron raised a finger to his lips. "Do you hear something Toto?" he said, softly.

There was a moment of silence.

"Yes, I can," said Toto.

Baron turned around (remember, Toto was still perched on Baron's shoulder) and looked through the glass.

"Curious, either that man has company and I can't see him, or he's talking to that fire he's lit," said Baron.

* * *

><p>What had happened was this. Whilst Baron and Toto were conversing outside the shop, inside it a blonde haired man wearing a patchwork cloak had materialised inside the shop.<p>

Seeing that he was now in a new location, the man looked around him.

"Nice place, whoever owns it," thought the man. He walked up to one of the shelves and noticed the hats that were arranged on it. "Though his taste leaves something to be questioned."

Then he saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye.

"Howl?" came a voice to the man's left. The man turned to look in the direction the voice had come from.

In a fireplace that the man had not seen a moment earlier was a fire. But what was unusual about this fire, was that it had eyes.

"Calcifer?" said the man, "Wait a second, if you're here, what's happened to the castle?"

"Howl, I don't even want to think about it!" said the fire.

Howl, yes that was the man's name, was a magician who lived in a rather unique castle – it was capable of walking. Calcifer, the talking fire, was in fact a fire demon who was responsible for heating water, cooking food, making the castle walk and, most importantly, maintain the castle's structural integrity. Hence the reason why the castle began collapsing on top of Seita.

"Sophie, Markl, Calcifer we…" Howl started, concerned that his wife and apprentice would have been crushed in the castle's implosion.

"Don't worry, they were still out," said Calcifer, "and they took the old hag and the dog with them. Casualties: nil."

Howl gasped with relief.

"Where are we, anyway?" said Calcifer.

"By the looks of things, a hat shop," said Howl, walking up to a shelf lined with oddly shaped hats, "Though who'd want these, I don't know." And he would have said more had he not been interrupted by the doors swinging open.

Howl turned in the direction of the doors.

At first, he wondered if there was something wrong with his eyes the man in the top hat and tails with a bird perched on its shoulders who had just stepped through the doors had a face resembling that of a cat.

It was as the cat got closer, that Howl realised that that was indeed a cat, dressed in clothes, walking on its hind legs.

"Am I addressing the owner of this establishment?" said the cat.

"You aren't. I don't suppose you're looking for a new hat?" said Howl, eying the cat's top hat.

"I'm not, actually. Though I was hoping you could be of assistance to me."

"In what way?"

"I and my friend have been brought to this town against our will and we don't know where we are. I was hoping that you would be able to shed some light on our present location."

"Against our will," Howl thought to himself before speaking out loud, "I don't know where we are, either. And the reason I don't know is because we too have been brought here against our will."

"I see. I don't believe I've introduced myself, yet. I am Baron Humbert von Gikkingen. This is my friend Toto."

"I am the Wizard Pendragon. And this is my fire, Calcifer," Howl introduced himself and Calcifer, using one of his many aliases.

"A wizard!" said Toto, "If you're a wizard, why don't you simply magic yourself back to where you came from? And us while we're at it."

"Say Howl, you're blushing," said Calcifer.

"I don't know how to teleport," said Howl, "There's no need to when you have a moving castle and magic doors."

"Or if you can fly," mumbled Calcifer.

Though wizards are not accustomed to flying on broomsticks like witches, Howl was capable of travelling through air by other means such as being able to walk off roofs and not fall as well as being able to transform into a bird-man hybrid.

Baron turned to look at the fire. "Tell me this, how is it your fire is capable of speech?" said the cat.

"Fire? I'm no ordinary fire, I'm a scary fire demon!" said Calcifer.

"And how is it that you came to be in possession of a so-called fire demon?" the cat addressed Howl.

"It's a long story, but let's just say we have a deal," said Howl, "Now you tell me how it's possible for a cat to wear clothes, walk on its hind legs and grow to the size of a human?"

"I am a Creation. That is, my maker put all of his heart whilst he was making me," said the cat, "In the same manner your fire is no ordinary fire, I am no ordinary cat. As for why I am the size of a human, I have yet to figure that out. I found myself at this size when I arrived inside this shop."

"So no one knows where we are," said Howl, "So, it's time to make a plan of action!"

"And what might that involve?" said Baron.

"If we're in a town, then chances are there'll be a tourist office. And if there's a tourist office, we can learn where we are. Or maybe we'll find some kind of coach or railway station," Howl answered.

"Except how are we don't know how large this town is and where any of those things are," said Toto.

As soon as he had finished that sentence, he found that everyone was now staring at him.

* * *

><p>On a path overlooking a beach, a small red-haired girl materialised from thin air. This was quickly followed by the materialisation of a small black-haired boy.<p>

"Sosuke!" the girl exclaimed and hugged the boy.

"Ponyo! You're alright," said the boy.

Ponyo and Sosuke were brother and sister. They lived in a house that was on a cliff that overlooked the sea.

Ponyo let go of Sosuke. "We're not on the beach anymore," she said, looking at her feet, which were now standing on a gravel path. Sosuke looked down and saw this as well.

Ponyo looked up. "And where did that fence come from?" she said.

Sosuke turned around and saw that there was a small white picket fence. He walked toward it. It was then that he saw that the fence was keeping him from falling over the edge of a cliff! He looked downward and saw the beach and the cliff face.

Ponyo walked over to join him and stared at the cliff below. "But that's the beach!" she said.

"Ponyo, that's not the beach below my house! It isn't that big," said Sosuke, "and look at the cliff; it's flat!" Indeed the cliff looked like a grey wall as opposed to being a natural rock formation.

"Sosuke, what happened to the cliff?" said Ponyo.

"Nothing's happened to the cliff, Ponyo. We're not home anymore!" said Sosuke, stepping back from the edge of the cliff face, "We're lost!"

"This is all because of that evil wizard!" said Ponyo.

"Who?" said Sosuke, who then realised what Ponyo meant, "You mean that man?"

Ponyo nodded.

Ponyo was not Sosuke's biological sister. She was the daughter of a magician who lived under the sea. She had escaped and through various adventures was eventually adopted by Sosuke's family.

"Did you ever meet him before?" said Sosuke, referring to the 'wizard'.

"No. Sosuke, what are we going to do?"

"Remember what Mom told you to do if you got lost?"

"Yeah, she said to ask an adult for help. But there are no adults here!"

Sosuke stepped back from the pier and looked around him, and noticed a large stone building not too far in the distance.

"Let's try there," said Sosuke, pointing to the building. Ponyo nodded and the children walked toward it.

* * *

><p>Electricity covered Seita's body and the boy saw his surroundings distort.<p>

Was this the end?

All of a sudden, the electricity ceased covering his body and Seita found that his surroundings had changed.

Seita pinched his arm and decided that he was not dreaming. It was as he looked at his arm that he noticed something else.

The device was now missing.

It dawned on him what had happened.

"HE TRICKED ME!" Seita shouted and punched the ground, pain shooting through his knuckles. Seita withdrew his hand and found that it had come into contact with hard concrete.

He stood up. "I've got to get home. I've got to help Setsuko," he thought, "but where am I?"

He looked at his surroundings and saw that he was standing on a flat, rectangular concrete surface and in front of that were a set of railway tracks.

It dawned on Seita as to where he had arrived.

"No, it can't be," he said, stepping backward wanting to get away from what he was seeing, only to walk into something.

He turned and saw what he had bumped into.

A pillar.

The pillar he had seen himself lying against when the man had shown him his future.

"NO, I DENY THIS!" Seita shouted and ran from the platform and through the rest of the station not caring where he was going until he reached a set of wooden doors.

Seita pulled the door handles.

The doors did not move.

He pushed the doors.

Again, they did not move.

In desperation, Seita banged the doors. "LET ME OUT!" he screamed.


	5. Chapter 5

As Seita banged on the doors and screamed at them, he was unaware that he was being watched.

"If only he had followed the teachings of his parents," said the man, "never talk to strangers, and never take gifts from strangers either."

Seita did not hear any of this, for you see they were not in the same room. The man was observing from elsewhere via a large television screen.

"It's time I turned my attention to other matters," he said, turning his attention to a beast and three girls on top of a pagoda. "Time to see what the beast is capable of. Thanks to the boy's hesitance, I have two extra girls to deal with. Still, that's not a problem."

The man moved his hands over a console below the television screen.

* * *

><p>The 'beast' that the man referred to was Totoro. When we last left him, he and his companions had discovered that they were above a large town that none of them recognised.<p>

"What are we going to do?" said Mei, "We're lost."

"We could head into that town," said Sheeta, "We might be able to find someone who can tell us where we are."

"Totoro, did you hear that?" said Satsuki.

The giant grunted and took off from the roof of the pagoda and flew toward the town.

As Totoro flew, he noticed something that he had felt earlier, but had brushed it off as being his imagination. But here it was again.

It was similar to what he experienced one time he went for a flight in the middle of a rainstorm. He could feel an electrical charge in his whiskers.

But the sky was cloudless.

He then felt a strong gust of wind was blowing, directing him toward the town.

* * *

><p>"If only I could get a better view of where we were," said Kiki, finding that she and Jiji were surrounded with nothing but buildings. She had a thought and darted back inside the room. She emerged a few seconds later with the broom that she had seen inside the room earlier.<p>

"Huh, the way you're going through brooms, you'll be on your seventh one by Christmas," said Jiji as Kiki mounted the broom.

"Coming?" Kiki said to her cat. Jiji leapt onto the brush of the broom, not wanting to be left behind.

Kiki concentrated. The wind whipped around her and the broom ascended into the air.

"Kiki, is it just me, or did the town change overnight?" said Jiji, observing what was below him.

"The town hasn't changed Jiji, we're no longer in Koriko," said Kiki taking a look at the town, "At least we're still by the ocean."

"Gee, it always has to be beside the ocean, doesn't it?" Jiji paused, briefly. Then something caught his attention. "Now that's odd."

"That we're in another town that's by the ocean?"

"No. I've got a feeling in my whiskers, Kiki. Like it's about to rain."

"But there aren't any clouds." Kiki slowly turned her broom and continued rising. It was then that she noticed a large grey object.

"Well there's your cloud," said Jiji.

"A small lone grey cloud on its own? That isn't right," said Kiki and flew closer to the object.

As she did, she saw what looked like a giant rabbit and three girls holding onto its body for dear life.

"Jiji, what is that?" Kiki said as the beast moved toward her.

"Kiki, if I knew that, we'd know a lot more about the universe," replied Jiji.

* * *

><p>"What's that down there?" said Sheeta.<p>

Everyone looked downward.

In the distance was an unidentifiable flying object above the town.

The object rose higher into the air. As it did, the group found themselves looking at a strange sight.

A girl on a broomstick with a black cat.

"Is that a witch?" Satsuki said.

"I thought witches were only stories," said Sheeta.

"It is a witch!" Mei exclaimed, "She has a broom and a black cat."

"Perhaps she can help us," said Sheeta and then turned to speak to Totoro, "Can you fly us closer to her?"

"NO!" Mei shouted.

"Mei, don't be stupid! She might know where we are!" Satsuki retorted.

Totoro growled. He found that he was flying toward the witch, regardless. He could not help it. He was being directed by the wind, which was now picking up in strength. He was rapidly approaching the girl.

* * *

><p>"Is that a giant rabbit?" said Kiki.<p>

"Make that a giant flying rabbit," said Jiji, "I've heard that somewhere before, but where? Say, he's coming toward us quick. Really quick. Almost as if he's going to…"

* * *

><p>"STOP!" Mei yelled at Totoro.<p>

Totoro could see that if he did not stop, he would crash into Kiki.

There was only one problem, and that was he could not slow down. Totoro roared at the witch in desperation.

* * *

><p>"You heard him, SCRAM!" said Jiji. Kiki turned her broom. Jiji looked behind him. "We're not going to make it," he thought.<p>

* * *

><p>"Stupid girl, getting in my way!" said the man, seeing the encounter between Kiki and Totoro, "Fortunately, that can be rectified."<p>

* * *

><p>Suddenly, there was a strong gust of wind and the witch suddenly tumbled out of the sky, as though she had been hit by an invisible missile.<p>

The girls gasped, but before anything more could be the wind picked up and Totoro was sent flying toward the ground.

* * *

><p>The man cursed and stabbed at buttons on his console.<p>

* * *

><p>Kiki felt herself crash into something prickly and felt what she thought were stones hitting her face.<p>

She found that she was now stuck up a tree, was no longer perched on her broom and she was now being held up by branches.

"Again?" she thought to herself, remembering what had happened the first time she had made an air delivery.

"Look on the bright side," said Jiji, clambering onto a branch above her, "you haven't annoyed any birds this time."

"Jiji, can you see where the broom is?" Kiki said to her cat.

"Up there," the cat said, looking upward. Kiki looked up and saw the broom stuck amongst branches with acorns at their ends.

* * *

><p>Totoro and the girls braced themselves for a crash as they flew toward the ground being directed by a mysterious wind.<p>

But then as suddenly as it had arrived, the wind pushing Totoro toward the ground ceased. Now there was a wind blowing in the opposite direction that, if anything, was forcing Totoro to stop. Then as suddenly as that wind had arrived, it too ceased.

Totoro found that he was now hovering in mid-air and found that he was only inches away from the ground. He did not stop to think what might have happened the wind not ceased.

The beast found he was now above a plot of green land with empty flowerbeds and trees here and there. These were in turn surrounded by large structures of concrete (much to his displeasure).

The beast hopped off his spinning top (which vanished as soon as he jumped off) and landed on grass. Seeing that they were on firm land again, the girls jumped off.

"I wonder where that witch went?" said Satsuki. Just then, a rustling of leaves was heard.

"Over there!" Sheeta shouted, pointing to a large tree to her right. The group looked and saw Kiki attempting to unentangle herself from its branches. Sheeta ran over, quickly followed by Satsuki. Mei, however, instead ran to Totoro and grabbed hold of him. The beast looked at her, confused as to why she was so scared.

"Are you alright?" Sheeta called to Kiki.

"I will be, argh!" she said, as she managed to unentangle her legs from the branches. Unfortunately, this now left Kiki hanging on for dear life with her hands.

Seeing this, Totoro walked towards the tree.

"No! Don't go closer!" Mei shouted at Totoro, but the beast, seeing that Kiki was having trouble getting out from the tree, carried on undaunted.

Hearing Totoro coming up behind them, Sheeta and Satsuki stood aside. The beast stopped underneath the tree and stretched out his paws into a cup shape. Satsuki understood what was happening.

"It's OK! Let go!" Satsuki shouted at Kiki.

Kiki let go and landed in Totoro's paws. "These are soft," she thought to herself. She then looked up at the beast. Totoro smiled and lowered her to the ground.

Kiki climbed out of the beast's paws. "Thank you," she said. Seeing that his mistress was now safe on the ground, Jiji leapt down from the tree and walked next to his mistress.

Totoro then took out an umbrella from behind his back and stretched his arm upward toward the tree branches. He tapped one of the branches that Kiki's broom was stuck in. Totoro grabbed the broom before it fell to the ground. A few acorns attached to the branches fell to the ground. The beast turned and handed the broom to Kiki. "Oh, thank you again," said Kiki.

"A broom, a black cat, you really are a witch," said Sheeta.

"Yes, I am," said Kiki, "my name's Kiki, and this is my friend, Jiji." The cat meowed.

"My name is Sheeta," Sheeta introduced herself.

"I'm Satsuki," said Satsuki, "and this is…" Satsuki looked around.

Mei had vanished.

"MEI!" Satsuki shouted out loud.

There was no reply.

Looking around, Satsuki noticed what looked like someone's leg behind one of the nearby trees, only for it to quickly vanish. Satsuki walked toward the tree. Sure enough, she found Mei behind it and grabbed her by the arm. Mei squeaked in surprise.

"Mei, stop being stupid and come out!" said Satsuki.

"I'm not being stupid!" Mei retorted, "I don't want to be turned into a frog!"

Jiji burst out laughing. "A FROG! Can you believe it, Kiki? A FROG! That girl thinks you'd turn her into something as impractical as a frog! Doesn't she know witches turn people into ipigs/i?"

"It's a good thing no one else can hear Jiji," Kiki thought to herself and walked up to where the sisters were. Kiki then crouched down to Mei's level. "I promise not to turn you into a frog," said Kiki.

"Promise?" said Mei, extending her small finger to Kiki.

"Promise," said Kiki, extending her small finger and locking it with Mei's, "My name's Kiki, what's yours?"

"Mei," Mei answered.

"Pleased to meet you Mei," said Kiki.

"Your friend seems to be doing something odd!" Sheeta called to the others.

Everyone looked.

Totoro had now walked over to an empty flowerbed and opened his umbrella. However, there were no clouds in the sky. The beast was raising the umbrella into the sky, then lowering it.

Kiki and the sisters ran over to Sheeta.

"When did he start doing that?" asked Satsuki.

"He was looking at these acorns…" said Sheeta.

"Acorns?" said Mei.

"Yes, and then he took them over to that flowerbed and started doing some kind of…" but before Sheeta could finish her sentence, the sisters ran over to the flowerbed, pretended they had grabbed hold of umbrellas with their hands and started raising and lowering their arms.

"What are you…" Sheeta began to ask.

"Just do what we're doing!" said Satsuki.

You might wonder why Totoro was so interested with acorns.

Totoro was the spirit of the forest. Being the spirit of the forest meant that there were responsibilities that came with it, such as looking after trees. Acorns normally fall to the ground by gravity. This time, however, the acorns had fallen on the ground by his doing and that was another matter altogether.

Being the spirit of the forest, he was simply not going to let the acorns lie.

And so, a spirit and four girls were standing around a flowerbed raising the arms into the sky as though they were grabbing hold of umbrellas (or in Kiki's case, she had decided to grab hold of her broom and raise and lower it in the same manner Totoro was doing).

The beast strained.

All of a sudden, trees rose from the flowerbed. First small saplings, then within seconds, fully grown trees that stretched as tall as the skyscrapers surrounding the park, then even taller.

* * *

><p>Flying atop Haku, Nausicaa looked at the land below. Never had she seen such a large concentration of healthy vegetation before.<p>

She wondered if this was what the Toxic Jungle would look like once it had purified the Earth.

Of course, it was one thing to imagine what the Earth would look like in the future. It was another question as to whether she would ever live to see the Earth's purification.

Haku followed the path of the river. He was glad to be out of the forest.

Even then, there was still something that did not feel right to him. That there was some kind of electrical charge around him.

The racoon on Nausicaa's back felt this too and wondered if this was routine whilst flying.

Haku came to the edge of the forest and found he was now flying over a town.

"Look! Down there!" Nausicaa said to Haku.

On the ground were two humanoid figures. One had a crow perched on its shoulder, the other had what appeared to be a ball of fire floating next to him.

Haku flew over the figures, then turned around and began descending.

* * *

><p>"Tell me why I'm doing this again?" said Toto.<p>

"Because you are the only one among us capable of flight, Toto," said Baron.

"What about him? Or the fire? I mean look, Baron, he's floating in mid-air!"

Baron and the others were now outside the hat shop. Baron and Howl were standing on the ground, Toto was perched on Baron's shoulder and Calcifer, having got himself out of the fireplace, was now floating in mid-air.

"There's a big difference between 'floating' and 'flying'," said Calcifer, "What I'm doing is, 'floating'. You, on the other hand, do 'flying'."

"And as for me," said Howl, "I could go flying, but it might leave me permanently stuck in a form I wouldn't be too keen to be left in."

"And what might that be?" said Toto.

"A bird. Kind of," Howl answered.

"And what's wrong with being stuck as a bird?" said Toto.

The conversation was then brought to a halt by Baron knocking his cane on the ground.

"Look up there!" said Baron, pointing with his cane into the sky.

Everyone saw a white dragon above them. It flew over their heads, turned around and began descending to the ground.

"What do you make of this, Baron?" said Toto.

"Perhaps we are in a land of dragons," said Baron.

"I used to read about dragons when I was a boy," said Howl, "but I didn't think they existed. Do you know anything about this, Calcifer?"

"Nope," said Calcifer.

On the ground, the group saw that there was a woman riding on top of the dragon (and on top of the woman, what looked like a small, furry racoon).

* * *

><p>Haku landed. Nausicaa climbed off too, and the racoon scrambled to be around her shoulders again. Now without anyone on his back, Haku morphed back into his human form.<p>

* * *

><p>"Show off," Calcifer muttered.<p>

"There's a wizard who isn't afraid of turning into animals and flying around!" Toto said to Howl.

Nausicaa walked up to the group, Haku (and the racoon) following behind her. "Greetings," said the girl.

"I am Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, but please, call me Baron," said Baron, "This is my companion, Toto."

"I am the Wizard Pendragon and this is my companion, Calcifer," said Howl, "And you would be?"

"My name is Nausicaa," Nausicaa replied.

"My name is Haku," said Haku.

"A fellow wizard," said Howl, "I'm impressed; I've never met anyone who achieved turning into a dragon!"

"And what about him?" said Calcifer.

Everyone looked at the fire in confusion.

"How is it that you have a fire that speaks?" said Nausicaa.

"I'm…" Calcifer began.

"It's a fire demon," said Haku, breaking off Calcifer from finishing his sentence, "If it asks anything of you, don't ever give anything to it!"

"Hey buddy, I'd never ask anything from her, or anyone for that matter," said Calcifer, "anyway, we've all got names here, so I was wondering if your racoon friend down there had one."

Nausicaa looked down at the racoon, who was clutching onto her legs. She guessed it may have had something to with the talking fire. "Not as far as I know," she said, and then looked up at the others, "We were hoping to find some assistance."

"Assistance?" said Baron.

"Both of us were abducted from our homes by a boy…" Nausicaa began.

"…who had a watch and shot you with a bright light," Calcifer interrupted Nausicaa.

Nausicaa stopped abruptly. "How many?"

"We have no idea," said Howl.

"They were about to send me on a reconnaissance mission," Toto snarled, "Good thing you showed up, otherwise I would have been…"

"Toto, shush," said Baron, raising his arm to Toto's beak, as he saw something in the distance.

"You might want to turn around," said Howl as Calcifer's eyes widened.

Nausicaa and Howl did so only to see very large trees rising amongst the buildings.

* * *

><p>"What is this, Sosuke?" said Ponyo, having come across a large building with Sosuke.<p>

Sosuke looked at the large sign above him. "It says that it's a station," the boy said.

"A station?"

"A train station."

"That means we could take a train back to your house!"

"Ponyo, we don't have any train stations where I live."

"Oh. Then what are we going to do?"

"We'll find a map that'll tell us where we are, and then we'll take a train to somewhere that's close to where we live. Or we'll find a phone and call my mom."

"OK."

Sosuke went to pull at the doors, only for it to refuse to open. He pushed, only to achieve the same result.

"They're locked," Sosuke said to Ponyo. All of a sudden, there was a loud banging on the door, quickly followed by a shout of, "LET ME OUT!"

"Sosuke, what's behind that door?" said a shocked Ponyo.

"I don't know," said Sosuke, "I don't want to find out."

Seita could hear what sounded like people on the other side. Perhaps they would be able to open the doors.

Seita banged the doors again. "LET ME OUT! HELP ME!" he shouted.

"Shouldn't we get a grown-up?" said Ponyo, as more banging and shouting was heard from behind the door.

"That's the thing; we don't know where the grown-ups are," Sosuke replied.

"Excuse me," a voice said from behind the children.

The children turned around.

Standing behind them was a tall girl of around 13. She had brown hair that went down to her shoulders and brown eyes and was wearing a red dress with what appeared to be large pin sheathed through the hem of it.

"Who are you?" Sosuke stammered, surprised at the sight of the girl. But before she could answer, there was a bang on the door.

The girl looked at the doors "Let me through," she said to the children, who stood aside. She then walked up to the doors. "Hello?" she shouted at the door.

Seita was relieved someone had heard him.

"HELP ME!" he shouted.

"What's wrong?" The girl shouted through the door, back at the voice she had heard from behind it.

"I'M LOCKED IN! HELP ME!" the voice replied.

The girl crouched down, as though she were looking for something on the door handle.

"What are you going to do?" Ponyo said to the girl.

"Keep back," the girl said to the children and drew out a giant pin from her dress and inserted it into the keyhole. "Spiller's trick may prove to be useful after all," she muttered to herself.

Seita could hear clicking noises and wondered what was happening. Then the door swung open.

Seita saw three figures.

One was a girl, almost as tall as he was.

The second was a much shorter girl, or around 5 years.

The third was a boy, the same height as the second girl.

Seita recognised the latter two children. And likewise, they recognised him.

Sosuke gasped.

"It's him!" Ponyo shrieked.

"You know him?" said the girl.

"Yeah. He's the one who sent us here!" said Sosuke.

"But I killed you," said Seita, "how can you be here?"

"You did what?" said the tall girl.

Seita opened his mouth and tried to say something, but words failed to come to him.

At this, the tall girl drew out her pin from her skirt. "Explain yourself!" she shouted at him.

Seita fainted.

"Bad move," the girl said to herself and sheathed the pin back into her skirt.

"Is he dead?" asked Sosuke.

The girl crouched down and touched the boy's neck. "He isn't," she replied. She then took Seita by the armpits and dragged him to lie with his back upright against a wall.

"What's going to happen to him?" asked Ponyo.

"He'll be alright, so long as he rests," said the tall girl, "How do you know this boy?"

"It's kind of a long story," said Sosuke.

The girl looked at Seita and then looked at the children. "I think I have a lot of time," she said.

* * *

><p>"So he found company," said the man as he observed Seita, "Perhaps I ought to have done something to prevent that, if I wasn't so preoccupied. Still, he's unconscious now."<p>

The man turned his attention to other events that were unfolding.

"He has passed the test. I have seen enough," he said, then paused briefly, "I could take her now, but no, I must control myself. She cannot see it yet. It is no state to be seen. I need the beast! And I also need to test the others."

The snapped his fingers. From out of the shadows, a robot marched toward the man, who snapped his fingers twice. Two images of those who had been kidnapped appeared on the television screen.

"Do you recognise these two targets?" said the man.

Lights flashed in the robot's 'eyes'.

"Good," said the man who then tapped buttons on the console, causing the robot to vanish.

"Now for take the beast," said the man, who then tapped buttons on his device. Then he vanished into thin air.


	6. Chapter 6

Totoro looked up at the trees, feeling rather pleased with himself. Satsuki and Mei were jumping for joy in celebration of the trees that had sprung up.

Looking at the tree, Sheeta could not help but be reminded of another large tree she had once seen. She looked at the beast, who was now grinning like a cat out of a book she had once read. "Thank you," she said to Totoro. The beast looked down at her, still grinning.

"Kiki, I've got it!" Jiji exclaimed.

"Got what?" Kiki asked her cat.

"I've figured out what it, I mean, he is! He's a forest spirit! Like the ones your mom used to tell us in her stories at bedtime!" answered Jiji, "I only remembered!"

"Jiji, if he is a forest spirit, what is he doing outside of a forest?" said Kiki.

"Same way we're far from home?" said Jiji.

Sheeta decided to talk to Kiki whilst Satsuki and Mei danced around the trees in celebration of the new trees. "Before we were…interrupted, we were hoping that you could help us," said Sheeta.

"How?" said Kiki.

"We were trying to find someone who could tell us where we were," replied Sheeta.

"Tell you? But I don't know where we are, either," replied Kiki.

"You mean you were abducted too?" said Sheeta.

"Yes," said Kiki, "but who abducted you?"

"A boy, a teenager I think, with a device around his wrist," said Sheeta.

"I don't suppose he was stealing other peoples' pancakes as well," said Jiji.

"Jiji, you don't even know it was the same boy," Kiki said to her cat, looking down at him.

"What is your cat saying?" said Sheeta.

"He thinks that the boy who abducted you was the same one who abducted us," said Kiki.

All of a sudden, there was a bright flash of light and a man had materialised from thin air.

Satsuki and Mei, who had been dancing around the trees stopped. Kiki and Sheeta stared at him.

"It's time," he said and faced Totoro. He raised his arm and fired a white light from around his wrist.

Totoro vanished.

Kiki, Satsuki and Mei gasped.

The man briefly turned to face Sheeta. Then he vanished.

"Do you know that man?" Kiki asked Sheeta.

"Yes," said Sheeta, "but it can't be."

"Can't be who?" said Kiki.

"That man is supposed to be dead!" said Sheeta.

* * *

><p>"I've never seen trees to grow so quickly," said Nausicaa, gazing at the newly sprouted trees.<p>

"Magic," said Haku, "but what kind?"

"Does it matter?" said Toto.

"Toto, that tree may well have been a person a minute ago. You recall how Miss Haru nearly spent the rest of her life as a cat?" said Baron.

"Or it could be cursed," said Howl, "I need to get closer to investigate."

"Howl, you only just rid yourself of one curse," said Calcifer, "you don't need another one so soon!"

Just then, a bright light appeared in front of everyone gathered. It faded, leaving what appeared to be a large suit of armour.

"It can't be," said Howl.

"Impossible," said Nausicaa.

Just then, lights in the 'eyes' of the armour flashed. Then a bright beam of light shot forth from one of its 'eyes'. The beam hit Toto, blasting him onto the ground. Baron fell sideways onto the ground in shock.

Howl raised his arm at the suit of armour. He snapped his fingers and it was 'decapitated'. Snapping his fingers again, the armour collapsed to the ground in a shower of sparks.

Baron picked himself up from the ground and scrambled over to where Toto had fallen. "Toto!" he shouted.

The others scrambled over as well to see the fallen bird, Haku crouching over it. "He isn't dead," he said to Baron, "he's paralysed."

"You can revive him," said Nausicaa, "you did it before, you can do it again."

"He's paralysed and unconscious. I can revive him, but he'll be a bit dizzy when he wakes up," said Haku, who then hovered a hand over Toto and whispered some words.

The bird's eyes opened.

"Toto, are you alright?" said Baron.

"Yeah, but what just happened?" said Toto.

"You were shot by a robot. Fortunately it only paralysed you and this young man was able to revive you," said Baron.

Toto hopped back into his feet. "And where is this robot?"

"The wizard dealt…where is he?" said Baron, who had only just noticed that Howl had vanished.

These others turned and saw that Howl was now standing in front of the robot's remains. Seeing what Howl was doing, Nausicaa walked up to him.

Seeing that the situation had been dealt with, Howl had walked over to the suit of armour.

"You don't suppose, Calcifer, that this is evidence Laputa was, or even, is real?" said Howl.

"Could be," said Calcifer.

Nausicaa walked up beside Howl.

"Recognise this?" said Howl.

"I'd never seen one of these for myself, only pictures," said Nausicaa, "but this is a robot from The Seven Days of Fire."

"The what?" said Howl.

* * *

><p>Seita felt like he was coming out of a deep sleep. He could hear voices.<p>

"So you were a fish, you turned into a human bean and you're in love with each other," said the voice of a mature girl.

"Mm-hm," said the voice of a small girl.

Seita's vision slowly came into focus and he saw among the figures what looked like a girl with black hair in a bowl shaped haircut.

"Setsuko?" he said.

One of the figures turned. "Hey, he's awake," said the voice a girl.

Seita's vision came into focus and he saw that everyone had now turned to look at him. The girl whom he thought was Setsuko was actually a boy, who was with a small girl and a taller girl. He realised he was still in the railway station and he was still with a couple of his victims.

The taller girl walked toward him and then crouched down to his level. Seita glanced at her pin, sheathed in her skirt. The girl took a brief look at the pin's head before turning to Seita again. "I won't take out my pin for now," she said, "Before you passed out, you said that you killed those children, but here we all are, alive. So what did you mean?"

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me," said Seita.

"I've already heard six impossible things today. You won't make much difference," the tall girl replied.

Seita sighed and began talking, "I was given a device by a man. He told me to use it to kill people. At least, that's what he told me the device would do."

"You said a man gave the device to you. What did he look like?" said the tall girl.

"Grey hair, glasses, slightly taller than me," said Seita.

"That sounds like the man who kidnapped me," the tall girl thought to herself. "Where is this device now?" said the girl.

"The device was gone when I arrived here," said Seita.

"Turn out your pockets," said the girl.

Seita did so, but the pockets were empty.

"You took these children away from their families, do you know what it's like to have someone taken from you?" said the girl.

Seita thought of his parents and his sister.

And then he had an epiphany.

"Setsuko," he said quietly.

"Sorry?" said the tall girl.

"SETSUKO! I HAVE TO FIND HER!" Seita shouted and stood up.

"Who?" said the tall girl, but before anything else could be said, Seita pushed over the girl and ran out of the station.

The tall girl picked herself up. "Leave him," she said.

Seita found himself outside and realised that he did not have a clue as to where he was. He had thought that the railway station was the large one in Kobe, but as soon as he was outside he found that the surroundings did not resemble Kobe at all.

"I'm lost," he said.

There was a brief moment of silence followed by another louder cry of "I'M LOST!"

Seita thought. There was no use standing around. He had to find Setsuko.

He ran.

* * *

><p>Totoro materialised in a dark, large room. Its walls were a dark grey, and the only source of light came from a large sheet of light with what appeared to be moving images. Against the walls were what looked like the armour of soldiers.<p>

A few seconds later there was a flash of light and the man who had shot him with the light materialised in front of him. "Like what you see?" the man said to Totoro.

Totoro snorted.

"Surprised that I can see you? I am not bound by laws what may or may not be seen by mortals," said the man, "and before I forget, one wrong move, and you'll have my minions to answer to."

Totoro looked at the suits of armour. He had not suspected that there was anyone inside them.

"Tell me, do you know what this is," said the man, snapping his fingers.

An image of a forest appeared in front of Totoro.

A very familiar forest.

Totoro growled in response to seeing his home.

"You like it, don't you, beast? You like the trees, don't you? So, what if, beast, these trees were to be gone?" said the man, who then snapped his fingers.

The scene of forest was replaced with that of a desert.

Totoro roared in anguish.

"Terrible, isn't it, well imagine if that were to happen to the entire planet!" said the man, snapping his fingers again.

The picture zoomed out from the desert until it showed the Earth. However, this was not the Earth as many are used to seeing it with its blue oceans and green continents. This was a yellowy-brown Earth that had been turned into a desert. Shocked at this sight, Totoro roared even louder.

"This is why I need you Totoro," said the man, who then snapped his fingers again. Totoro now saw images of himself growing trees, both from that previous summer when he had grown trees from the acorns he had given Satsuki and Mei and minutes ago when he had been in that park.

"I need you to restore the Earth to its former beauty! You've demonstrated yourself to be capable of it! You'd be doing the same thing, only on a much grander scale!" said the man.

Totoro growled.

"Do I not have your agreement?" said the man.

Totoro did not agree with the man and growled. Unfortunately, the man could not understand what Totoro was growling.

"Maybe I have something that will help you to decide," said the man.


	7. Chapter 7

The man snapped his fingers. The image of the Earth vanished and the screen returned to showing images of everyone who had been kidnapped. The man snapped his fingers again and an image of Satsuki and Mei, who were still with Sheeta and Kiki, enlarged, taking up most of the screen.

"Your friends, I believe," said the man. "You would do anything to keep them safe, wouldn't you?"

Totoro growled.

The man turned to move his hands over the console. "You wouldn't like it if anything bad were to happen to them, would you?"

* * *

><p>Still in the park, Satsuki, Mei and Kiki were in the middle of a very interesting story Sheeta was telling them.<p>

"One night, the airship was attacked by pirates," said Sheeta.

"Pirates?" exclaimed Mei.

"Yes," said Sheeta, "and then…your cat seems to have become a lightning rod."

Everyone looked down at Jiji and saw that charges of electricity were now flying across his whiskers.

"Jiji, are you OK?" said Kiki.

"Kiki, my whiskers feel like it's about to rain. There are only two small problems," said Jiji.

"What is it?" said Kiki.

"First, look at the sky," said Jiji.

Kiki turned to look.

"Why are you looking at the sky?" said Satsuki.

"My cat just said his whiskers feel like it's about to rain," said Kiki.

"But there are no clouds," said Mei.

"That's the first problem," said Jiji, "and the second problem is I don't feel these things on ground level, I feel them when we're in the air."

Suddenly, cracks of lightning flew across the sky. What was unusual was that the sky was clear, yet lightning had formed.

"We need to get to shelter," said Sheeta.

"What about under the tree?" said Mei.

"It's not safe to be under a tree in a thunderstorm," said Satsuki.

As if to drive Satsuki's point home, lightning hit one of the branches of the tree, causing it to fall in front of the girls. Luckily, no one was injured.

"Let's go!" Sheeta shouted and everyone ran following her.

* * *

><p>Totoro roared in anguish at seeing the trees that he had just grown was now being attacked by lightning.<p>

The man turned from the console to face Totoro. "You see what I did?" he said.

Totoro growled.

"Oh no, I don't think you've learnt your lesson, Totoro. I think you need to be taught just a bit more!" said the man, not caring as to what Totoro's growls really meant, "Keep your eyes on him, if he pulls any funny business, teach him a lesson."

Totoro saw lights of the helmets of the suits of armour flash.

* * *

><p>Kiki, Jiji, Sheeta, Satsuki and Mei rushed out of the park as lightning struck more branches.<p>

"This way," Sheeta called pointed at the exit, which was a black arch with black metal fencing to either side of it. As the group ran under the arch, a bolt of lightning hit the park's fencing.

Totoro roared again in anguish.

Undaunted, the man continued watching the screen, his hands hovering over the console. "So that's what happened to the one I sent. Yes, perhaps I ought to have taken precautions when dealing with Howl Pendragon," said the man. He paused, briefly before continuing, "No, she would reject me. But there is another. Yes, I can use her. But first."

Opposite the park's exit was a large stone building. In the middle of this building were a pair of wooden doors, raised on a few steps, underneath a stone arch. "Underneath there," Sheeta called again, pointing to the building's entrance, "We should be safe from any lightning strikes there!"

Sheeta reached the arch first, followed by Kiki a few seconds later, with Jiji (who was still conducting electricity like a lightning rod) a few seconds after her. They moved to the back, toward the wooden doors, so that Satsuki and Mei could huddle underneath the arch as well. As they did, Kiki accidentally knocked against one of the doors, causing it to wobble. As Satsuki and Mei came under the archway, Kiki pushed against the door and opened it. "In here," she called. She entered the room and held the door open for the others as they entered.

The girls (and cat) now found themselves in a large room with wooden walls lined with shelves of books. In between these shelves were what appeared to be maps.

"Where are we?" said Mei.

"It's a library," said Satsuki.

"I've never seen so many books in one room," said Sheeta.

Suddenly, the building shook, and one of the shelves came crashing down, sending numerous books flying. Luckily, none of them hit the girls and no one was injured.

* * *

><p>Totoro could take it no longer. He lifted his foot to take a step toward the man.<p>

Suddenly, a beam of light shot from one of the suits of armour, striking Totoro's foot. The beast toppled sideways, landing on the ground with a thud and rolling onto his back (with another thud).

Totoro found that he could not move a muscle.

"Stupid thing!" said the man, turning to see the lump of fur that had fallen on the ground, "Prop him up!"

Two suits of armour marched over to Totoro. They lifted him up by his shoulders and pushed him to his feet.

"I warned you what would happen!" said the man, "It's a miracle you haven't gone straight through the floor! Such was the mastery of the engineers of Laputa."

The beast groaned.

"I am a merciful man, Totoro. The paralysis is only temporary. Death is not. You should be grateful that I have not made your friends suffer physical injury." The man raised his left arm and began to press buttons on his device. "I think you've learnt your lesson, Totoro."

All the beast could do was groan.

The man fired the device.

Totoro vanished.

* * *

><p>Toto tried flapping his wings, but found he could not yet fly.<p>

"Your strength will return slowly, so don't exert yourself," said Haku.

"I'll see to his wellbeing," said Baron and perched Toto onto one of his shoulders. The group then walked over to what remained of the robot.

"Do you recognise this robot?" Haku said as he walked up to Nausicaa and Howl, the latter having a look of surprise on his face.

"I'd only seen it before in tapestries and books," said Nausicaa, "I never expected to see one with my own eyes, let alone on that was intact. This robot was used during the Seven Days of Fire."

"That's the second time you've said that," said Howl, "what were the Seven Days of Fire?"

Now it was a Nausicaa's turn to look perplexed. "The Seven Days of Fire was the event that caused human civilisation to be in the state that it's in today," said Nausicaa.

"An event?" said Baron.

"A war," said Nausicaa.

"I've fought in many wars," said Howl, "but I've never fought in one called 'The Seven Days of Fire'."

"You couldn't have fought in the Seven Days of Fire. It happened 1000 years ago," said Nausicaa, "unless you're an immortal."

"I'm not. I've only seen this robot in books as well, pertaining to a civilisation called Laputa. But the books I read claimed it to be nothing more than legends," said Howl and turned to speak to Haku and Baron, "I don't suppose you know anything about this robot?"

"Laputa? Sounds like a book in your library, Baron," said Toto.

"Yes," said Baron, "That book, however, portrays Laputa as nothing more than a figment of Jonathan Swift's imagination."

"And I've never heard of it," said Haku.

Suddenly, bolts of lightning flew across the sky.

"A lightning storm," said Nausicaa, "I've never seen one like this before."

Then all of a sudden, one of the bolts of lightning hit a lamppost, causing sparks to fly off it.

"Everyone inside, quickly," said Howl darting over to the hat shop and pushing the door open. Everyone darted inside, Haku being the last to reach the doors.

But then he stopped and turned around to look at the sky.

"What are you doing?" said Howl.

"There's something wrong with this lightning storm, like how there's something wrong with this entire town. That storm isn't real," said Haku.

Then all of a sudden, a bolt of lightning flew down from the sky and shattered one of the windows. Haku yelled in pain as bits of glass cut his face. By some miracle, his eyes were uninjured and nothing had become embedded into his skin.

"That's not real?" said Howl.

"Howl, I think he has a point," said Calcifer, "Where's the rain?"

* * *

><p>"This doesn't look like a map," said Ponyo, looking at a large white poster, "it just has lots of lines."<p>

"It looks as though a toddler were given a sheet of paper and then left to his own devices," said the other girl.

"This isn't like a map of the world," said Sosuke, "first you need to know which station you're beginning your journey. Then you need to find what station you're going to and then see which lines you take."

"OK. Then what is this station?" said Ponyo.

"I don't know. The station didn't have a name on the front," said Sosuke.

"Where else could we find the name of the station?" said the tall girl.

"Maybe there will be a sign on the platforms," said Sosuke, who then pointed to a sign above an arch that read 'TO TRAINS'.

"Let's go!" said Ponyo, and the children headed for the platforms.

"What's your name?" Ponyo said to the tall girl as they walked to the platforms.

"Sorry?" said the tall girl.

"Your name," said Ponyo.

"I suppose it is only right I tell them, given that we're in this predicament together," the tall girl thought to herself. "My name is Arrietty," she said to the children.

"My name is Ponyo!" said Ponyo.

"And I am Sosuke," said Sosuke, "you have a pretty name, Arrietty."

"Thank you," said Arrietty.

There was a brief moment of silence.

"There's water coming from one of your eyes," Ponyo said to Arrietty, "are you crying?"

Arrietty wiped a tear from her eye. "I once knew someone who said that to me," she said.

"Who was he?" asked Ponyo.

There was another brief pause.

"It doesn't matter," said Arrietty.

The children came out from under the arch and found themselves on the station platform, underneath the shade of the platform's roof.

"This is the station platform, Ponyo," said Sosuke, who then pointed to the train tracks, "those down there are train tracks that the trains run on."

"If this is the platform, where's the station's name?" asked Ponyo.

"It should be on a sign, maybe a large one on the side of the platform," said Sosuke.

"You mean like this sign?" Arrietty pointed to a large white enamel square with a red circle and a blue line painted on to it with a yellow bar with black letters at the bottom of the square.

"Yes, only the name isn't on there," said Sosuke.

"What about those words down there?" Ponyo asked, pointing to a yellow bar with black letters at the bottom of the square.

"That isn't the station's name, Ponyo, that's a sign to tell people the 'WAY OUT'," said Sosuke.

Suddenly, lightning flew across the sky.

* * *

><p>Seita ran, not caring where he was going.<p>

He regretted this when he hit a wall.


	8. Chapter 8

Still cracking with electricity, Jiji walked over to where the books had fallen. "We could find something to read while we wait for that storm to pass. Or something that'll cure me from being a lightning rod!"

"If this is a library, maybe there's someone who can tell us where we are," said Kiki.

"COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!" Mei shouted.

"Mei, we're not looking for Soot Sprites," said Satsuki.

"Soot Sprites?" asked Sheeta.

"They're little balls who live in your house if they don't like you," said Mei.

"Charming," Sheeta thought to herself, then noticed something and pointed, "There's a desk over there."

Mei ran over to it. As she did, Sheeta noticed that Kiki had walked over to where the books had fallen and was conversing with her cat.

When she had got over to the desk, Mei discovered a problem – that she was not tall enough to see over the desk.

Satsuki quickly ran up to the desk and pressed a bell that was on the desk.

No one came.

"Hello?" Satsuki said.

There came no reply. For of course, there was no one behind the desk and no one else in the library.

While the other girls had gone over to the desk, Jiji had walked over to the books that had fallen. "Kiki, I think you should take a look at this," said the cat.

"What have you found?" said Kiki, walking over to Jiji and trying her best not to step on any of the books. The other girls meanwhile walked away.

Jiji pointed with his paw at the book. "Kiki, it's me. And you," he said, "And I'm not conducting electricity anymore!"

Kiki picked up the book. The book had a witch on a broomstick with a black cat flying above a town. Then she read the title of the book.

"Kiki's Delivery Service," she read out loud. She opened the book and flipped through it and saw its illustrations, the night she had left her home, the day she met Ursula in the woods, the day she rescued Tombo during the incident with the airship.

"Jiji, this is a book about me. I mean us," said Kiki.

"That's not all," said Jiji, pointing to a couple of other books with his paws, "you see these?"

Kiki bent down to pick up the books. Jiji moved his paws off them and Kiki picked them up.

"I have to show these to the others," said Kiki.

"Found something?" Sheeta asked her.

"There's something I think you should have a look at," said Kiki and handed her a book.

Sheeta looked at the book's cover.

"But that's me," said Sheeta, "and Pazu, and Laputa, and what's that other book you have?"

Kiki showed her the other books.

"Have you found something?" Satsuki asked Sheeta, walking back from the desk with Mei.

"I think you should see this," said Sheeta and showed her one of the books.

"That's Totoro!" said Mei, on seeing the cover of the book.

"That's not all," said Satsuki, taking the book from Kiki, "That's us!"

The cover of the book Sheeta had handed them had a picture of Totoro perched on top of a tree playing his ocarina. Beside him on a branch where Satsuki and Mei, both playing ocarinas under a moonlit sky.

Satsuki flipped through the book. "But who would know all of this about us?" she said.

"It makes sense that Muska would know about me, but how could he know about the rest of you?" said Sheeta, "He's dead. Or so I believed."

* * *

><p>Nausicaa dabbed a towel against Haku's cheek.<p>

"No pain?" Nausicaa said to Haku as she dabbed the cloth against the boy.

"I've had worse injuries. Much worse," said Haku.

In many films, a man will take numerous beatings whilst fighting gangsters, yet will wince if touched lightly with a damp cloth. If it is not obvious that you are not watching a film involving Arnold Schwarzenegger or Steven Segal, please seek help.

"So, you still say that none of this is real?" said Howl as the lightning storm continued to rage outside.

Nausicaa dipped the towel into the basin of the water. Haku then noticed that Nausicaa's racoon had climbed onto a hat stand and was trying to pull the leaves off a rather ridiculous looking hat with flowers and leaves on top of it. Haku stood up and grabbed the hat off the hat stand, much to the racoon's dismay.

"I didn't get to tell you any of this, earlier," Haku said, "all of this looks real and feels real. Yes, it can even cut our skin. But none of this is real! I've sensed it ever since I got here! It's an illusion!"

"If this is an illusion, then you've got a pretty good one on your face," said Howl.

Haku looked at the racoon and then tossed the hat back at him, then began his story, "I used to work at a bathhouse. We had visits from numerous spirits and creatures."

"Sounds like a thrilling bath house," said Howl.

"An entire house for bathing?" said Nausicaa.

"If the young man may be allowed to continue, perhaps we could ask questions when he is finished?" said Baron.

Haku continued, "Well, one day, we had a visit from a group of raccoons. On their own they can shape shift, but they have the ability to create illusions if they mass together in groups. Well one day, we had a large group of them arrive on a boat. Well, when they arrived they decided to play some tricks. You should have seen the bathhouse. It was filled with all sorts including dragons and giants. Well eventually, the bathhouse got set on fire, or so we thought. It turns out that was an illusion and that it was their idea of a 'grand finale'! Well, my boss ordered them out, but not before they tried to provide compensation."

"And what might that have been?" said Howl.

"Gold. Which vanished the moment they left," said Haku.

There was a brief pause during which Nausicaa noticed that the racoon had pulled the silly hat apart and had put the leaves on top of his head.

"So, that must have been a large repair job on the bathhouse?" said Howl.

"No, the damage vanished when they left," said Haku.

"Well, that cut of yours hasn't gone away," said Howl.

"My point is, just because we can touch everything here, that it can hurt us, it doesn't mean it's nothing more than an illusion," said Haku.

"And how would you know all this?" said Howl.

"I'm a spirit," said Haku.

"What exactly is a bath house?" said Nausicaa.

"Hey lady, he's just claimed to be a spirit, you've met a talking cat, a talking bird, a fire demon and a wizard, and what surprises you the most, is a _bathhouse_!" said Calcifer.

"Well, there aren't any bathhouses in the Valley of the Wind!" said Nausicaa.

* * *

><p>"Did Fujimoto ever tell you about lightning storms like this?" Sosuke asked his sister.<p>

"No, my father never told me about what life was like above the ocean!" said Ponyo, "I only learnt about lightning last week!"

"I don't know if she is or was a fish," Arrietty thought, "she certainly thinks she is one." She then felt someone tugging on her dress and saw that it was Ponyo.

It was then that Arrietty took a moment to reflect on her own situation. Was it really so odd that a girl could turn from a fish into a human bean? After all, she was only 3 inches high.

At least that was how high she had been before she had arrived here.

When she had first arrived in the town, she had arrived in a house and found that everything was her size.

Her first thought was that she was now inside a doll's house.

She found her way out and soon enough found herself in a street filled with what she guessed were dollhouses too. Perhaps, she had thought to herself, that she was in a model village.

Arrietty left the house and the model town behind her. She needed to find her way back to her home.

But it had been nearly a week, and Arrietty had not found her way home. If anything, there seemed to be no way out.

Had she found a way out now?

Then she had met the two children.

Ponyo had said to Arrietty that she had changed from being a fish into a human bean.

But how could there be human beans who were her size? Unless what had really happened, was that she had grown to human size.

But how could that be possible? But then, was it really more impossible than a girl turning from a fish into a human.

It only then occurred to Arrietty, that she had not eaten anything in a week and yet was not dying of starvation.

"Maybe while we wait for the storm to pass, you could tell us how you got here?" Sosuke said to Arrietty, interrupting her train of thought.

"Well, I was in the garden outside where I live…"

Before she could say anymore, she saw a flash of white light from behind her. Ponyo and Sosuke saw this flash as well. They turned and saw a grey haired man wearing a grey outfit.

"YOU!" Arrietty shouted.

All of a sudden, the man fired a white light that came from a device on one of his arms, striking Ponyo, causing her to vanish. Arrietty, charged at the man, but before anything more could be done, the man too vanished in a flash of light. Arrietty stopped short and kicked the wall in anger.

"That was him," said Arrietty, turning to speak to Sosuke, "that was the man who kidnapped me!"

"Where's Ponyo?" said Sosuke.

"I wish I knew the answer to that," said Arrietty.

* * *

><p>Seita returned to consciousness with a throbbing head, having been unconscious whilst the lightning storm had been taking place.<p>

Slowly, he picked himself up.

In front of him, there appeared to be some kind of road.

Seita stood up and walked into what felt like a brick wall.

But he could not see anything in front of him.

"No," said Seita, "NO!"

Sand.

This was all Totoro could see for miles.

Totoro slumped onto the ground.

What was the point in living if what he cared about was now dead?

Ponyo materialised in a dark room. Looking around her, she saw what appeared to be numerous robots and a very large television screen. Then seconds later, there came a flash of light and a man materialised from thin air.

"Welcome, Princess," said the man.

"Who are you?" said Ponyo, "Where am I? Where's Sosuke?"

"I have something to give you, Ponyo." And the man took out from his pocket a ruby crystal with a golden pattern.

"Mom said never to accept anything from strangers!" said Ponyo.

"Tell me, Ponyo, do you remember when you still had magic?" said the man, snapping his fingers. An image materialised on the television. "Observe."

Ponyo looked at the television screen. "But that's my father! And me!" The girl saw that it was from when she was still a fish from after her father had found her after she had first met Sosuke and was trying to cleanse her of any trace of human.

"I don't want these flippers anymore! I want feet!" the fish Ponyo said and strained, causing chicken legs to appear from her body.

"And you remember when you became a human, you gave up your magic," said the man, snapping his fingers. The image changed to that of Sosuke holding a bucket standing by the cliff when all of a sudden, Ponyo, still a fish, bounced out of the bucket in a bubble, kissed Sosuke on the lips and then morphed into a human girl.

"I remember that," said Ponyo, "I gave up my magic because I love Sosuke!"

"This crystal will restore your magic, Ponyo," said the man.

"But, my father told me that I can't be human and have magic at the same time," said Ponyo.

"Such rules do not apply here, Ponyo," said the man, "Now, will you accept this?"

"No!" Ponyo shouted.

"And why not?" asked the man, "Does the prospect of having your magic back not enchant you?"

"It does," Ponyo replied, "but that watch around your wrist was the one that boy used to bring us here! And now you've used it to separate me from Sosuke. You're no better than _my_ father!"

"Then you leave me no choice Ponyo," said the man.

Pocketing the crystal, the man then turned to the screen and snapped his fingers. An image of Sosuke and Arrietty appeared.

"Recognise the boy?" the man said, "Tell me Ponyo, you would hate it if any harm were to befall him?" He turned to face one of the robots and snapped his fingers. An image of Sosuke appeared on screen. "This is your target," said the man. The robot turned to face the image of Sosuke and light flashed on its face. "Good," said the man, who then tapped some buttons on his device and fired it at the robot.

* * *

><p>"What are going to do, now?" said Sosuke.<p>

"Come with me, Sosuke," said Arrietty.

"Why?"

"Because it's better if we stay together."

"If I come with you, will we find Ponyo?"

"I can't guarantee that."

Sosuke sighed.

Arrietty and Sosuke walked back into the station, only to see a flash of light and see a giant robot standing in front of them. Its lights flashed. Then it looked upward and blasted at the "TO TRAINS" sign which exploded.

"RUN!" Arrietty shouted to Sosuke and the two ran back toward the platform.

The robot moved his head and fired at the roof of the tunnel.


End file.
